Wednesday, January 7, 2009

And so it begins...

...2009... The year of chumping out... For on this first windy day, I have forsaken my 3 sail quiver, and rigged a fourth. Yes yes, it's true. I rigged... down (gasp). Today I sailed with Anne's 3.7, instead of just hanging on to my 4.2. LAME!! It wasn't even that windy, 30 mph gusting to 40... Easily 4.2 weather.

Today's Frisco Woods iWindsurf.com Graph

For those who don't know, my usual reply to "Whatcha riggin'?" when everyone is coming in defeated on their mid 3s has historically been a quick "Eh, 4.2". Was it worth sacrificing my manly-hood today? Well, the 3.7 actually worked great. The only issue I had was hand chafe from holding on to generally unused, and still very grippy, portions of the boom. Other than that, the thing sailed sweet, and allowed the gusts to feel a little more playful than usual. So yeah, it was worth it! Will I do it again? Probably not : )

Keith, guinea pig on his 4.2

**update**- Bill's got a nicely detailed report of the day's action here!

After a few hours of bashing around at the Hole with Frisco George, Loopee (who was killin' it), Mark, Jim K, Keith, and Bill, a huge squall pushed through, virtually unannounced. Luckily, every one was de-rigged (well, Bill and I were still in the process, but it was fine). Torrential downpours and gusts into the 50s smacked us down for a few minutes, but they left as fast as they arrived, so Bill and I decided to head to Old Lifeguard Beach to see how the waves looked.

I'm in there somewhere, click to enlarge (Photo: Keith) (Thanks for the pic, Keith!!! Why the heck didn't you rig up and join us?!?!?)

I'm so glad we went down there! We arrived to find clean, peeling rights, in the chest to overhead range, and much lighter wind than earlier. I rigged my 5.0 (familiar territory again). There was ZERO wind on the inside, but I caught a few little puffs and squeeked out. Lined myself up for a nice looking wave, it jacked up on the bar, ended up well overhead and long enough for two solid turns! Stoked!! Kicked out and rode the conveyor belt for another 2 hours! Unbelievable first good day of 2009!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it was 65 degrees F all day! Winter? Huh? What's that?

The forecast is for never ending radness, so come on down and join us for some fun!!

5 comments:

George Markopoulos said...

Great post. Sounds like perfect hatteras.multiple vemiues, tons of wind, a breif squall followed by perfect weather.nice. And looked like no shorebreak at lifeguard. I watched the wind readings and wondered where you guys would be sailing. Glad you caught some waves

Anonymous said...

3.7? Really Andy...

Catapulting Aaron said...

succumb to the small sails...

I recommend going to the gorge for a month and promising yourself you won't go below 4.2...

Anonymous said...

Hey Andy how was the freestyle session today at the island? The forecast is very good for saturday. Hope to to have less wind than yesterday haha!!

Andy said...

Yeah George, great day for sure! We looked for waves all over the place, but when it's that windy it's kinda pointless because of how chopped up it gets, but Lifeguard beach was holding a great wave! Gotta remind myself to check there in the future...

Forgive me, Diablo?? Will you still be my friend?

C_A, the Gorge is a totally different place from the rest of the world. (So's Hatteras, I know). Sometimes it makes me laugh when people from the Gorge speak with absolute conviction about stuff that would NEVER work ANYWHERE else... Anyway, if you'll pay my expenses I'll go out there for a month and try! Feel like making a bet about it? : )

Loopee, the sesh was rad for a little while, but the wind faded away to nothing... You've GOTTA come out there sometime and join us!!